It isn’t often that a team gets excited about a No. 4 overall draft pick playing the role of seventh man to perfection entering his sixth NBA season, especially when he’s in the second year of a five-year, $90 million contract extension.

Yet, even in this role, it’s important to remember that forward Patrick Williams has looked above-average in flashes since his rookie year in 2020, only to let the Bulls down. So, despite encouraging performances so far this preseason — including nine points and five assists Tuesday night in a 124-117 loss to the Nuggets — hit the brakes. Nearly everything with Williams is wait-and-see.

“I see Patrick really being a part [of the rotation],” coach Billy Donovan said. “But the other thing, too, is Patrick’s minutes can change, like anyone’s can change, based on who we’re playing against and what the matchups look like, what the rotations look like, all that stuff. It will be pretty changeable throughout the course of the season, I think.”

In other words, just because the Bulls opened their checkbook to Williams doesn’t mean there’s a commitment to giving him heavy minutes — especially with second-year forward Matas Buzelis emerging in Williams’ old starting spot and the addition of forward Isaac Okoro in a trade with the Cavaliers.

To his credit, Williams dropped weight over the summer to fit better in Donovan’s up-tempo offense and has had a solid camp and preseason. In the opener in Cleveland, he wasn’t even included in the 10-man rotation but still came off the bench to score 11 points in 16-plus minutes. In a rematch two nights later, he finished with eight points in 21-plus minutes and was a plus-8 in plus/minus.

Sunday’s game against the Bucks was his best: 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 23-plus minutes to finish at plus-7. Even in Tuesday night’s loss in Denver, he was a plus-1.

“What we’re basically talking about is consistency,” Donovan said. “As a coach, when you’re working with these guys, certainly you want to help them with their skill set, but the skill set is purely based on making split-second decisions and reads on what’s going on in the game. There are things [Williams] can control, in my opinion, on every possession. He can get to the glass, he can get out in transition — he can do that. The other parts, when you have a young team, there’s going to be these ups and downs, these waves of devel-opment from these guys.

“I’ve seen some growth from Patrick. The thing you want to do is try and stack games together. I’ve always said that the best players in this league, if you take 10-game increments, there’s like one game out of 10 that they don’t play well. As it relates to Patrick, his minutes and stuff like that, a lot of it will be how consistent he’s playing. If it’s not going well — for anybody — we may have to go with someone else.”

Williams hears the message.

“This league is filled with so many good players, and the one thing that separates the great ones from the good ones is consistency,” he said. “For me, and I hate to beat a dead horse, but staying on the court [healthy] has been a big [factor]. I’m feeling confident about my body.”

His play last season wasn’t what he wanted it to be, he said, “but you live with it.”